December 3rd Art in Action Highlights
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This week the 4 and 5th Graders received instruction on the following elements and principles of art:
Line: the path of a point moving through space.
Color: Colors all come from the three primaries and black and white. They have three properties – hue,
value, and intensity.
Texture: Texture refers to the tactile qualities of a surface (actual) or to the visual representation of such
surface qualities (implied).
Space/Perspective: Space refers to the area in which art is organized. Perspective is representing a
volume of space or a 3-dimensional object on a flat surface.
Laurie Shepherd (Sorensen,Karaica,Young,Beck)
Mrs. Shepherd taught a lesson to the fifth graders on using cool colors to create a Seattle Skyline lesson.
The students focused on night and winter scenes with cool colors but some still wanted sunsets...they
turned out awesome!
With the fourth graders, Mrs. Shepherd taught a lesson on perspective -background, foreground mainly
and created a winter wonderland scene with cool colors as well. They ripped brown and white paper
to create textured trees and snow and then we also folded a red envelope and placed it strategically in
our winter scene and talked about what would happen if we walked in the woods and found a red
envelope....what would be in it? what would you do?
Trese Rand (Miller,Bodwell,Beck,McLellan)
Trese taught a lesson using water colors to create a picture of Mt. Si. Trese provided precut mini
squares of white board. The students were asked to observe what the sky looks like outside the window
and to identify the colors; purple, grey, and a smokey kind of green cast to the landscape. The students
began by sketching their picture with pencil, and then adding watercolors. Spaces of white were left to
create the illusion of snow patches. Trese also taught the students how to make trees look real and far
away, how to paint winter grass poking up thru the snow, and how to make the sky look dark and
stormy. When the water colors were dry enough, the students got to go back over their picture with
light, quick pencil lines to show rain. Trese also spoke to the students about the importance of a good
paint brush and how practice is important to improve. It is important to Trese that the students develop
their own style and technique- and it is so interesting to see that happen- especially with children who
might lack confidence. The students concluded by creating little easels to display the paintings.
Kara Popp (Bodwell,Sorensen,McLellan,Miller)
Mrs. Popp focused her lesson this week on having the students create a montage of seasonal images
that represent the winter season. Their art piece was divided into 4 sections that were drawn and
composed of various colors and shapes that offset each other. A series of lines and colors divided the
images creating a collage of color and shape.
Kaila Russell (Karaica, Miller, Miller, Young)
Art comes to us in a variety of forms...This week 4th and 5th graders will be creating trees in a different
sort of way...stitching them with needle and thread. Not only does this stitching create an awesome
product...it's a great life skill. Students will hand sew straight lines to create the outline of a tree, and
then fill it in however they choose. Of course, there is the possibility of embellishment as well. Once
created, they will glue their masterpieces onto card stock to complete a card that can be given away as a
gift or cherished at home.
Art At Home
Warm and Cool Colors:
Review the primary and secondary colors with your child. Talk about how these colors can also be
grouped in another way. Warm and cool.
Talk about things that make us feel warm and what colors they are. Like the sun is yellow and makes us
feel warm, fire has yellow, red and orange and also makes us feel warm. Do the same for the cool colors
(blues, greens and blue-violets).
Have your child draw a picture that makes them feel warm and cool using only the warm and cool
colors. Remind them that if they are going to use red, yellow and orange (warm colors) they must draw
something that is warm. The same with greens, blues and purple (cool colors).
Perspective:
In drawing and painting, perspective is a method of creating the illusion of depth by means of
converging lines. In simple terms that means that by taking and arranging your lines on a piece of paper,
you can make your image appear as though it is three dimensional. Visualize standing at the side of the
road. OK, good. Now visualize a car driving towards you way in the distance. As that car gets closer, you
will see more of it... you will see the color of the car, the shape, the person driving it and so on. The
same goes in a drawing. The farther away something is, the smaller and less detailed it is, the closer that
something is, the more detailed it is.